KFC ad banned for 'racist' undertones. You decide?

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cobl04

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Right, so here in Australia it is cricket season and one of their biggest sponsors is KFC.

There are about five or six different short ads showing on TV, all of which are somewhat humourous.

This one, however, was banned after it sparked a backlash in the States. Some Americans have been left seething and keyboard fighters on the internet have been sitting back taking pot shots at Australians over our country being racist.

Here is the ad:

YouTube - Racist KFC Advertisement? --OFFICIAL VIDEO

And here are a few articles.

KFC ad labelled 'racist' by US commentators | Herald Sun

KFC Australia pulls 'racist' ad after US anger | Herald Sun

Most of you probably couldn't care any less, but I'm growing ever so tired of the attacks on Australia as a racist country - there are certainly people here who are, there are facebook groups to prove it - and the absolutely unbelievably PC, fun-is-bad people who get that bored that they get a KFC ad which had nothing to do with racism banned.

The same thing happened with the Jackson 5 'blackface' skit which appeared on our Hey Hey It's Saturday reunion shows, outraged Harry Connick Jr and caused a huge outpouring of negative comments over a skit which was never racist.
 
If people where to look at the series of ads KFC is running at the moment, the ad itself is quite clever.

Black, white, yellow, orange, pink & purple stiped people eat chicken..GET OVER IT!

As for targeting a stero type, what about the guys name "Mick" I know a number of Australians who are positive all Americans think every man in Australia is named "Mick" and can tame wild beast ect.

Why don't people nit pick that.. :|
 
As for targeting a stero type, what about the guys name "Mick" I know a number of Australians who are positive all Americans think every man in Australia is named "Mick" and can tame wild beast ect.

Why don't people nit pick that.. :|

hah, it kinda feels like people around here think i'm from some tiny pacific atoll with no connection to the rest of the world. at least they don't seem to think everyone from new zealand are savages. the scary part is, the people that think this are the ones who should know better, while the people you think might not know anything of the outside world are quite knowledgeable.
 
Uh, can someone explain what exactly is racist here? :huh: I don't see it. All I'm seeing is a bunch of people and a dude in a Brazilian football jersey offering them some chicken. Is that racist these days?
 
from what i've read, i think some are claiming it's portraying the stereotype that african americans like eating chicken.

which is even more fucking ridiculous than it sounds.
 
forget racist, how about an advert we have over here on tv and on radio, about the 'father/hubby' and if he remembered to get milk. and then its telling mums not to forget the milk, and how great it is that mums remember the milk and in the end its just a fuking advert for milk but SO going down the 'chained to kitchen housewife' type road....................jaysus :doh:
 
Well, frankly, I can see why people see that ad as racist. You've got a white guy surrounded by black people, and his response is to call it an "awkward situation" and put his head in his hands like he's surrounded by something stupid--which, in this case, is an ethnic festival that the black people are clearly enjoying. The chicken is really beside the point, although it doesn't help that handing out fried chicken to apparently befriend blacks is a stereotype (albeit, in this case, a flawed one; I'm not sure that Caribbean blacks [as this is sounds like a Caribbean festival of some kind] like fried chicken the way African-Americans are stereotyped into liking).

And I did see that "Jackson 5" blackface skit, and it was certainly racist as well.

YouTube - Harry Connick Jr. offended by racist Jackson 5 skit in Australia

I'm not in a position to characterize Australia's issues on race. I'm not sure one can chalk it up to a form of "cultural naïveté," where these images are truly not meant to offend--but do anyway--or if it is a manifestation of a more latent racism, not nearly as blatant as up to the first half of the 20th century in the U.S., where whites enjoyed all sorts of products with stereotypical black imagery that I'm sure they thought were fun and harmless too, but were patently offensive to the black community. I guess the real test would be to hear the response of Australia's black community to that ad and sketch to see if they find it offensive or not, but I'd put my bets on them finding it offensive too.
 
melon, your response seems to highlight the exact problem. in an american context, it would be racist, however in an australian context (where black people + fried chicken isn't a common stereotype) it's a legitimately humourously-inclined ad to show a friendly rivalry at a sporting event.
 
I interpreted it as this guy is at a sporting match and somehow manged to end up sitting with the people from the opposing side, thus why he felt awkward sitting there.

The "too easy" meaning that if you have this great chicken to pass out you can make friends even with your rival.

In America they could have made this commercial, however, the opposing side would have been a mix of difference races and the rivalry would have been highlighted strictly by the opposing jerseys. banners etc.

I'm assuming in this case it was an international match.
 
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Well, frankly, I can see why people see that ad as racist. You've got a white guy surrounded by black people, and his response is to call it an "awkward situation" and put his head in his hands like he's surrounded by something stupid--which, in this case, is an ethnic festival that the black people are clearly enjoying.

Is it an ethnic festival? From what I gather here about the context, cricket, it might as well be that the Aussie cricket supporter (in his yellow and green shirt) is surrounded by West Indies supporters. If so, the ad is shot in an awkward way because the supporters of the other team are also of another race. And that apparently it's a stereotype that black people eat fried chicken doesn't help either.
 
That ad would not have survived in the United States. I think it's funny because it is racist.

Everyone's a little bit racist. I'm sure this would've been fine on a Chappelle's show skit or South Park. But I think this as a national ad on tv is inappropriate. I hardly doubt there'd be such an uproar if it was just an internet youtube thing either.

Then again, American culture is very different from Australian culture. From what I gather, the uproar came from our side of the ocean, not yours. Like melon said, I'm curious to see how the black community of Australia reacts to this.

Besides, I think KFC sucks for different reasons entirely. This does not all surprise me.
 
hah, it kinda feels like people around here think i'm from some tiny pacific atoll with no connection to the rest of the world. at least they don't seem to think everyone from new zealand are savages. the scary part is, the people that think this are the ones who should know better, while the people you think might not know anything of the outside world are quite knowledgeable.


You make a very fair point, and I agree with you :)
 
melon, your response seems to highlight the exact problem. in an american context, it would be racist, however in an australian context (where black people + fried chicken isn't a common stereotype) it's a legitimately humourously-inclined ad to show a friendly rivalry at a sporting event.

And I'm certainly aware that this might be a true "lost in translation" kind of moment, which is why I'd be contented hearing what the Australian black community thinks of these images.

As someone who works in marketing, it's worth noting that the internet has made all local campaigns ultimately global in scope. There is also the example of a Dutch PSP ad that was pulled, due to wider outrage on the internet of an angry looking white woman threatening a black woman as a metaphor for the debut of the white-coloured PSP as an alternative to the standard black colour:

white-psp-europe.jpg


I think it's interesting also to note that, while I would quite like to visit both Australia and The Netherlands and I hold a generally favourable opinion of them, both nations are not exactly known for their positive race relations, so while I am willing to say that it's more than possible that U.S. viewers are overreacting to something that isn't there, I also can't rule out some form of (latent) racism, sorry to say, as there have been plenty of historical examples of this in the U.S. to draw precedent from.
 
is there even a stereotype of caribbean people liking fried chicken? that's who the ad is portraying as wanting to share the chicken.

well, i've been to a few caribbean parties, and i do remember some damn fucking good jerk chicken, both friend and not. i wouldn't equate that with a stereotype though. i'm just sayin' it was fuckin' good (yes, this was before i went veggie.)

by the way, isn't kfc selling grilled chicken now?

anyway, you have a point. that's a BIG misinterpretation.
 
Is it an ethnic festival? From what I gather here about the context, cricket, it might as well be that the Aussie cricket supporter (in his yellow and green shirt) is surrounded by West Indies supporters. If so, the ad is shot in an awkward way because the supporters of the other team are also of another race. And that apparently it's a stereotype that black people eat fried chicken doesn't help either.

You're right. They're cricket team supporters, not at an ethnic festival. I do think that my larger point still stands, though. They're perceived as "ethnic/foreign," in contrast to the white protagonist.
 
well, i've been to a few caribbean parties, and i do remember some damn fucking good jerk chicken, both friend and not. i wouldn't equate that with a stereotype though. i'm just sayin' it was fuckin' good (yes, this was before i went veggie.)

by the way, isn't kfc selling grilled chicken now?

anyway, you have a point. that's a BIG misinterpretation.

i don't know if they they are in australia. incidentally, as a veggo, is chicken salt kosher? (ha, that wasn't intentional). all i know is that kfc in new zealand and australia is fucking light years better than american kfc.

given the ad was themed around an australian cricket series against the west indies, i think we've identified the bigger problem at hand - someone wanted to get angry and take some moral high ground before they had any idea of the context of the ad whatsoever.

ps that dutch billboard is horrible and can't be compared to kfc.

funnily enough, most people from australia i've seen reacting to the over-reaction had no idea about this stereotype.
 
^^In one sense I think that ad could have suvired in Australia, although yes it does have a racial factor in it, I see it as quite quirky.

It has that shock value, that some companies can get away with, at the right place, right time.
 
well, i've been to a few caribbean parties, and i do remember some damn fucking good jerk chicken, both friend and not. i wouldn't equate that with a stereotype though. i'm just sayin' it was fuckin' good (yes, this was before i went veggie.)
i can see now why you've gone veggie, if you'd befriend the chicken before you eat it! :wink:
 
At the end of the day, the target audience was for Australians who watch and enjoy cricket.

The aim of the ad is to make the connection between the Cricket and KFC being a sponsor.

The point of the ad would have gotten across just the same if the bloke was sitting in the middle of the Barmy Army while they where singing.
They just used a caribbean style because it was relevent for the time.
 
I agree with Melon, I can see where people are coming from, especially in an American context; and I don't know know enough about the Austrailian context of fried chicken and black people to comment.

But the blackface skit was racist no matter how you slice it.
 
Just saw it there, and all I saw was a funny type jabbing advert that its cricket season, this one Aussie guy surrounded by so many visitors and he has a massive bucket of KFC (to advertise the bucket of KFC) sharing round, to demonstrate how much you get in it (quantity)etc.



thats fuking it.
 
I haven't seen the ad and don't intend to (no, an embedded youtube link does not count on my connection). I will only say that most advertising aims squarely at the lowest common denominator.

As for the old Australia's-so-racist thing. Meh. We have our troubles, who doesn't. I think the nation looks worse from the outside looking in because its default position tends toward complacency and avoiding a fuss. Sometimes that is good, and sometimes that is bad. It's mostly a cultural thing, because the reality is as someone noted, a certain degree of racism is an unavoidable feature of human existence.

The ad, I suspect is probably something worse than racist: stupid.
 
I interpreted it as this guy is at a sporting match and somehow manged to end up sitting with the people from the opposing side, thus why he felt awkward sitting there.

The "too easy" meaning that if you have this great chicken to pass out you can make friends even with your rival.

In America they could have made this commercial, however, the opposing side would have been a mix of difference races and the rivalry would have been highlighted strictly by the opposing jerseys. banners etc.

I'm assuming in this case it was an international match.

This is how I saw it too. And since he's wearing a football t-shirt it's probably aimed for the upcoming World Championship 2010.


That billboard is pretty damn bad. Though Melon, how exactly do you consider the Dutch to be ot well known for their race relations?
 
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